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TeachTravelTattoo
Joined: 28 Jun 2011
Posts: 8
Location: New York City, NY
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 Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 2:36 am Post subject: n/a |
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n/a
Last edited by TeachTravelTattoo on Mon Jan 02, 2012 8:18 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 12:36 pm Post subject: Re: High school-university level?And being gay with tattoos? |
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| TeachTravelTattoo wrote: |
| Hello. I'm new to the site and have been learning a lot. I'm still fuzzy on information about teaching at the university level. |
Have you read the plethora of links in the FAQ stickies? Answers a lot of questions.
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| I have been teaching since 2003. I've been a tutoring consultant and literacy coach, have a BA (English), MA (Contemporary English Literature), an Advanced Certificate (Secondary English Education), and New York State English certification (7th-12th grades). I have been working at an international school in Manhattan since 2008 as their only upperschool (6th-11th) English teacher. |
This and the other stuff you wrote show how busy you have been as an administrator. However, it doesn't appear that you have any publications. Is that true? That would be a pretty severe deficit, IMO.
Also, most positions are teaching jobs, not librarian or dean slots. I wouldn't expect that you'd get into either of those unless you had fairly high level of Japanese language skills (reading/writing/speaking), if at all. taikibansei on this site was dean, but I believe his language skills are excellent, his length of time in Japan is long, and he worked at a uni that was primarily all taught in all fields in English.
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| How would you high school and/or university teachers describe the work? |
Well, for starters, the vast majority are not "global kids" in the least. Most don't realize that Hawaii is a state, not a country, and most live in a lot of international isolation. If it weren't for movies and music, they wouldn't know a lot of the world.
That fits HS and uni students both.
Students here have a social / maturity level that is about 3-5 years behind what you are used to in the U.S. So, even though you don't want to teach kids younger than 17-18, be aware of that.
The uni teaching work itself consists of 4-6 90-minute classes per week. You get about 15 lessons per semester. You will probably have your own office and a research budget of 100,000-500,000 yen/year. A lot depends on what type of uni you are in: national, private, etc.
Expect to have a boring staff meeting at least once a month, conducted in Japanese. Minutes of previous and ancillary meetings that people attended will be the main agenda, and they will be read by the chair aloud. Expect to do entrance exams 1-3 times a year, on weekends, and for a paltry sum.
Students will usually take uni English classes just to get the credit, not to learn. Despite 6 years of secondary education, they will enter uni on the basis of insane and arcane entrance exams, yet not be able to speak more than, "Hi, how are you? I am fine." I am not exaggerating. Many will enter with worth levels than that because they will enter on a recommendation. I would say you'll be working a lot with kids with less than a U.S. HS mentality.
Most FT jobs at uni are contracts for 3 years, then you are gone. Even PT teachers have to show a master's degree and publications these days for many uni jobs.
HS work is usually ALT work for public schools and either PT or FT temporary work in private schools. An ALT job would be a major step down for someone with your experience, but it's up to you. You'd have to work for the JET Programme or a lousy dispatch agency unless the board of education has a rare direct hire opening. ALTs work with Japanese teachers of English (JTEs), who may not give the slightest about working with the ALT, who may dominate them, or who may simply give up the entire class to them.
If you are in HS, expect far more classes per week, 10-20, although they will be 45-50 minutes long. Kids will get their grammar from the JTEs, maybe even in a separate course without you. Many/Most have poor English speaking skills of their own. Few have ESL training, and equally few have traveled/worked abroad. Your main job is usually to provide some sort of listening source for the students, of varying degrees. "Human tape recorder" is one of the lower duties. Expect to be shuffled between several schools, too, leaving consistency to the wind.
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| I work with Japanese teachers and have gotten to know (a bit) their culture in school, work habits. |
I suspect there is a fair amount of difference if you are talking about working with them outside Japan.
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| Granted, ours is a pre-school through high school, but I do know that the Japanese are methodical, detail-oriented, perfectionists. |
They also teach horribly in HS English education, IMO, still at the grammar translation level. Almost no writing is taught, and English reading is usually limited to the paragraph level. Their detail-oriented nature fits well with Japanese culture, where they are often in charge of HS students to the level of being nursemaid, nanny, counselor, psychologist, surrogate parent, and career guidance source. They know everything about every student's personal life, it seems.
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| So, high school and/or university teachers, how would you describe the work, the commitment of time? |
When I was a FT HS teacher in a private school, the hours were incredibly grueling. In at 8:00, and leaving almost 12 hours later. The J staff stayed until 10-11pm. Saturdays were half-days of official work, but I know the J staff stayed all day. Sports clubs suck away your afternoons, even if you are assigned to a club where you have no interest (the J coach does all the work). Dorm duty (if available) is to be avoided, unless you like to work from 8pm to 11pm just to do bed checks and watch them forced to do homework in the cafeteria during that period. I had about 20 classes per week, which meant 11 completely separate lessons to plan. Mine was the toughest schedule in that regard; other FT teachers had more like 6 lessons to prepare. Many classes met twice a week. In HS, I was on at least one committee (mandatory). My week consisted of making 11 lessons, teaching (solo) 20 classes, going to the committee meeting, attending a 2-4 hour all-staff meeting, attending a meeting for the grade I was assigned to, and usually one more. Can you see why most lesson planning and homework checking never even got started until after 6pm?
Private HS will have a school festival and overseas study trips which suck away time from the students so that they will not study anything else. They practice club activities 4-7 days a week. Then there's open campus where you have to dream up a demo lesson for prospective students. There are 5 major exams per semester. You will be the one to make the listening section, and other parts of the English section. Correcting that and the entrance exams is a nightmare marathon of checks, double-checks, and triple-checks.
Koshien (the national HS baseball tournament) and another major sports tourney event allows students to be absent for 2 weeks (yes, 4 classes) with no penalty. Good luck if you have a writing class that requires drafts to be handed in on a timeline.
Grades are inflated. You have quotas to fill, and if your classes don't match them, you will be told to change the grades no matter how fairly you set them up. Almost nobody is expected/allowed to fail. Retesting and private tutoring runs rampant to ensure that.
In uni, you often/usually have to follow a curriculum given to you, but it seems flexible. May depend on the uni. In my HS, the syllabi were written anew every year, but the insane thing was that the writer may not have ever taught the course, so you got stuck with it and the textbook that was ordered for you. Ask about the terrible quality of public school textbooks which are approved by the government.
You cannot get a work visa initially to work PT. That is allowed after one year, if you want to go that route.
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| I do have student loan debts (about $335 a month). Do you find that you can make enough to live, pay debts, travel, save? |
You should have no problems paying that off and saving on the side, whether you have a HS job (typically 220,000-270,000 yen/month before deductions) or uni job.
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| I love being a teacher and can certainly stay at my school or find a new school (in NYC or elsewhere), but would certainly welcome a change of scenery, daily routines, meeting new people, and seeing if I'm "up to snuff". |
It's a whole different ball game here.
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| I think working in an international school where French and Japanese, and various African languages, are spoken more readily than English, but where I've made my mark, helps me feel that I can do this. |
If you can get into an international school, it will be much closer to teaching as you know it.
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| I'm working on a tattoo "suit" (not head or hands) and it is easily hidden in the suits I wear to work, but if someone work-related sees any of my inkwork outside of school, can I be fired? |
Legally, no.
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| I've read about how tattoo art is frowned upon in Asia. I love wearing suits, but don't plan on wearing long sleeved shirts in the summer. What about the beach? Saunas? |
Expect some level of discrimination in public baths or spas, despite the fact that you are not a yakuza. Otherwise, you may not have any problems at all.
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| Also, I'm gay and my partner will be staying in NYC to go to school for graphic arts design. If I like Asia after a year, he will get a job in the same city and join me. I'm out, but always mistaken for being heterosexual. I don't take it as a compliment; it just is. I work in a gay-friendly school and am open with my colleagues. Would that be something I'd have to hide in a Japanese high school or university? I'm only interested in teaching in large cities, and people are usually more cosmopolitan in large cities. |
I have no direct experience with this. My feeling from what others have written (and from my coworkers at an eikaiwa who knew a gay teacher there before I arrived) was that it's not an issue.
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| I'm a career teacher, so I want to make sure I'm doing the right thing for myself. I've never "babysat" as a job and won't start now. Teaching is too important to me. |
Then I'd suggest looking hard to get a job at an international school. |
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TeachTravelTattoo
Joined: 28 Jun 2011
Posts: 8
Location: New York City, NY
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| Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 2:33 pm Post subject: |
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| Thank you so much for your detailed response. That is exactly what I was looking for. Yes I agree, I should look into international schools. I get a lot out of working with junior high students as well as high school students. I think the stories I've been reading about language schools had me concerned. Thanks again. |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 9:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Language schools? I haven't even mentioned them! |
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TeachTravelTattoo
Joined: 28 Jun 2011
Posts: 8
Location: New York City, NY
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| Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 11:04 pm Post subject: |
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| Hah hah, yes, well, I've been reading about many different types of school situations, and your detailed message really gave me a lot to think about. I ended up searching 'American high schools abroad' and 'international schools'. I guess having a similar, hopefully satisfying school experience in a new city and country is what I need. Thanks again for writing. I'm still very interested in Japan as an option. I just want to learn more about the American high schools there. |
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timothypfox
Joined: 20 Feb 2008
Posts: 492
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| Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 11:43 pm Post subject: |
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I agree mostly with what some of the other posters said, but I would like to stress that if you get a full time job at a private Japanese high school, your expectations as an employee will be quite a bit less than Japanese teachers.
In my own work place, it is the japanese homeroom teachers that put in long hours - coming in at 8 am and sometimes staying to 7-8 pm at night. I always leave at 5:30 when the students go to get their school bus. I do work on a 5 and a half day schedule, but on Saturdays I always leave at 2:30.
My current work schedule is 2-3 classes a day, and I have a desk in a shared office.
So, I think Glenski probably worked longer hours and had more responsibilities than I currently do. Private schools vary in terms of the contract, responsibilities and salaries they offer. Also, some may or may not promise a permanent position. Usually it takes 3 years to get a promise of a permanent position.
For more details about my current job, please feel free to PM me on this site.
I did have a look into teaching at private international schools in Japan. It is good you have a teaching license because many try to follow overseas curriculums in the US, Canada, or Britain. Many of these schools do not directly advertise, so you would be wise to contact them directly and find out when a good time to apply would be and what positions they think they would be looking for in the next academic year. Depending on the school, it may start its academic year in April or in September. Your work as a social studies teacher might put you in a good position.
While I don't usually advocate paying job sites in a job search, the one site I found useful in looking for jobs in Japan was tieonline.com. You can look up available jobs by country and they usually have listings in Japan by subject area - and I found several listings for ESL teachers... Although I finally found my job through Dave's ESL Cafe after trolling around discussion boards - it took me 3 or 4 years to find something decent....
I have had had several gay colleagues at language schools when I last worked in Japan 14 years ago in Osaka and Kyoto. They were just fine then. If you are looking for a community, or people who will truly understand you, just like the US head for a larger city - over 1 million people. |
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TeachTravelTattoo
Joined: 28 Jun 2011
Posts: 8
Location: New York City, NY
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| Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 2:23 pm Post subject: |
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| Thank you as well! I'm staying at my current school for the 2011-2012 school year, but what follows feels like it's coming up awfully quick. Thank you again. I'm very glad I joined this site. |
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rxk22
Joined: 19 May 2010
Posts: 1629
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| Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 1:57 am Post subject: |
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| I have a Q, how do the students react to gay teachers? Are they ok with it, do they not care, or are they mean about it? |
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G Cthulhu
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
Posts: 1373
Location: Way, way off course.
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| Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 4:29 am Post subject: |
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| rxk22 wrote: |
| I have a Q, how do the students react to gay teachers? Are they ok with it, do they not care, or are they mean about it? |
In my experience, very few students will give a damn one way or the other. |
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rtm
Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 1003
Location: US
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| Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 2:07 pm Post subject: |
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| rxk22 wrote: |
| I have a Q, how do the students react to gay teachers? Are they ok with it, do they not care, or are they mean about it? |
Just wondering... how will they even know? It seems like that would never even come into the picture in the classroom. |
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rxk22
Joined: 19 May 2010
Posts: 1629
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| Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 3:19 pm Post subject: |
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| rtm wrote: |
| rxk22 wrote: |
| I have a Q, how do the students react to gay teachers? Are they ok with it, do they not care, or are they mean about it? |
Just wondering... how will they even know? It seems like that would never even come into the picture in the classroom. |
A lot of my students ask me ALL the time if I have a gf. Ever self intro, they ask that as well, 4th through 12th grade |
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rtm
Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 1003
Location: US
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| Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2011 2:55 am Post subject: |
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| rxk22 wrote: |
| rtm wrote: |
| rxk22 wrote: |
| I have a Q, how do the students react to gay teachers? Are they ok with it, do they not care, or are they mean about it? |
Just wondering... how will they even know? It seems like that would never even come into the picture in the classroom. |
A lot of my students ask me ALL the time if I have a gf. Ever self intro, they ask that as well, 4th through 12th grade |
Mine did, too. Can't you just say "no"? |
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rxk22
Joined: 19 May 2010
Posts: 1629
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| Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2011 4:14 am Post subject: |
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| rtm wrote: |
| rxk22 wrote: |
| rtm wrote: |
| rxk22 wrote: |
| I have a Q, how do the students react to gay teachers? Are they ok with it, do they not care, or are they mean about it? |
Just wondering... how will they even know? It seems like that would never even come into the picture in the classroom. |
A lot of my students ask me ALL the time if I have a gf. Ever self intro, they ask that as well, 4th through 12th grade |
Mine did, too. Can't you just say "no"? |
i don't care myself, not being gay, and having a fiance. But they do ask all the time, esp after class. So, a lot of people might just give in to the madness, or lie. |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2011 2:24 pm Post subject: |
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There is the odd chance that someone, anyone, will ask you whether you like Japanese women. It's almost a burning curiosity for some of the locals, perhaps fueled more by movies and magazines and the escapades of some foreigners, than it should be, IMO.
I was always intrigued when someone asked me that. (They don't now with a wedding ring on my finger.) It can be a little awkward, even if the answer is "yes". One doesn't want to be set up with someone, and yes, that has sometimes happened.
1. Expect it, but plan an answer that will be polite.
2. If you want to admit your sexuality (either one), that's your business. I didn't particularly care for being under the social microscope, and I often diverted such questions. Humor works. Just don't leave the inquirer more curious than when they started.
3. If you don't want to admit being gay or straight, just tell them (again, politely) that you would rather not talk about personal things. |
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rxk22
Joined: 19 May 2010
Posts: 1629
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| Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 4:30 am Post subject: |
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| Do Japanese really try to set each other up that much? Or that a Hokkaido thing? |
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